Good health is a right, not a privilege
Oct 11, 2009
<b>By Liz Kobusinge</b><br><br>I commend the journalists who wrote a special report on health centre IIIs — refer to Saturday Vision of September 19 and 26. The common problems included drug and other logistical shortages — unhygienic environments,
By Liz Kobusinge
I commend the journalists who wrote a special report on health centre IIIs — refer to Saturday Vision of September 19 and 26. The common problems included drug and other logistical shortages — unhygienic environments, understaffing, absenteeism, space shortages, service providers reporting late for duty yet closing early and poor infrastructure in the healthcare system. The pictures in the report show the reality on the ground and those who often visit such areas agree with the report.
Good health for all Ugandans is a right and should not be treated as though it were a privilege. With inadequate services in the public facilities, the majority of Ugandans experience out-of-pocket expenditure on health.
Much has been said about healthcare delivery especially about drug shortages and health workers whose poor work ethics discourage clients from seeking services. But addressing the gaps in health care delivery should be balanced.
One of the dimensions of investment in health is capacitating the health system as a whole so that our health facilities are in a position to address people’s health issues. This does not exclude the consideration of service providers and motivation to serve.
Motivation can take the form of regular and timely support supervision, availability of the basic resources for service delivery.
Motivation can also be better remuneration, regular meetings for experience sharing, refresher trainings, confirmations in office positions, promotions at work, accessing the payroll and ensuring health workers have manageable workloads.
The findings of a study carried out by Capacity Project, funded by the USAID, indicate that Uganda has the potential to train enough health professionals, but health centre IIIs and II cannot attract and retain high quality staff.
Most highly qualified health professionals stay in the urban areas, serving only 12% of Uganda’s population. Human resource management for health is among the major missing links in the health sector. There is need to revisit the human resource management system so that all line managers can be actively involved in human resource issues.
There is need to build capacity in the area of human resource management so that staff recruitment, orientation on expectations, resource allocation, performance targets, motivation, monitoring and evaluation, appraisal and punitive measures for the deviant are well handled. In this way, public service providers will have commitment rather than compliance.
When health facilities lack well trained staff, have inconvenient hours, lack supplies or the staff disrespect clients’ rights, then communities have inadequate access to services.
In The New Vision report, the service providers who were interviewed said absenteeism is a result of drug shortages. This mentality should change because service providers have a wealth of health information that needs to be shared and disseminated whenever possible. Service providers need to become “ambassadors of health†who seek every opportunity to dialogue with clients about health, correct misinformation, rumours and promote healthy behaviour.
In order to accomplish these goals, providers must not confine their health service roles to treatment of the sick.
They need to integrate them with other roles in the community. Such interactions should lead to increased peoples’ knowledge on important health issues, improved service providers’ image, increased prevention and reduced curative and emergency requirements.
It is deduced from The New Vision that because of the centre III inadequacies, self-referral by patients is more common than referral through the Government-instituted channels.
Communities by-pass local health centres and go to health centre IVs or hospitals which should not deal with primary health care problems that befit health centres III and II. Uganda being a developing country, resources are limited and so we need strategic management of the health care system at all levels.
The writer is the programme officer health and nutrition
SAO-Uganda
I commend the journalists who wrote a special report on health centre IIIs — refer to Saturday Vision of September 19 and 26. The common problems included drug and other logistical shortages — unhygienic environments, understaffing, absenteeism, space shortages, service providers reporting late for duty yet closing early and poor infrastructure in the healthcare system. The pictures in the report show the reality on the ground and those who often visit such areas agree with the report.
Good health for all Ugandans is a right and should not be treated as though it were a privilege. With inadequate services in the public facilities, the majority of Ugandans experience out-of-pocket expenditure on health.
Much has been said about healthcare delivery especially about drug shortages and health workers whose poor work ethics discourage clients from seeking services. But addressing the gaps in health care delivery should be balanced.
One of the dimensions of investment in health is capacitating the health system as a whole so that our health facilities are in a position to address people’s health issues. This does not exclude the consideration of service providers and motivation to serve.
Motivation can take the form of regular and timely support supervision, availability of the basic resources for service delivery.
Motivation can also be better remuneration, regular meetings for experience sharing, refresher trainings, confirmations in office positions, promotions at work, accessing the payroll and ensuring health workers have manageable workloads.
The findings of a study carried out by Capacity Project, funded by the USAID, indicate that Uganda has the potential to train enough health professionals, but health centre IIIs and II cannot attract and retain high quality staff.
Most highly qualified health professionals stay in the urban areas, serving only 12% of Uganda’s population. Human resource management for health is among the major missing links in the health sector. There is need to revisit the human resource management system so that all line managers can be actively involved in human resource issues.
There is need to build capacity in the area of human resource management so that staff recruitment, orientation on expectations, resource allocation, performance targets, motivation, monitoring and evaluation, appraisal and punitive measures for the deviant are well handled. In this way, public service providers will have commitment rather than compliance.
When health facilities lack well trained staff, have inconvenient hours, lack supplies or the staff disrespect clients’ rights, then communities have inadequate access to services.
In The New Vision report, the service providers who were interviewed said absenteeism is a result of drug shortages. This mentality should change because service providers have a wealth of health information that needs to be shared and disseminated whenever possible. Service providers need to become “ambassadors of health†who seek every opportunity to dialogue with clients about health, correct misinformation, rumours and promote healthy behaviour.
In order to accomplish these goals, providers must not confine their health service roles to treatment of the sick.
They need to integrate them with other roles in the community. Such interactions should lead to increased peoples’ knowledge on important health issues, improved service providers’ image, increased prevention and reduced curative and emergency requirements.
It is deduced from The New Vision that because of the centre III inadequacies, self-referral by patients is more common than referral through the Government-instituted channels.
Communities by-pass local health centres and go to health centre IVs or hospitals which should not deal with primary health care problems that befit health centres III and II. Uganda being a developing country, resources are limited and so we need strategic management of the health care system at all levels.
The writer is the programme officer health and nutrition
SAO-Uganda